The Cloud Architects Podcast

You turned on MFA, you finished your security awareness training, and you think you're covered. You're probably not...

Five years after his first visit, Donovan Stevens from SpyCloud is back to show us how much of our digital lives is already sitting in the criminal underground, and how little it takes to piece it all back together. Starting from nothing but a name, he can work his way to phone numbers, old email accounts, home addresses and family members. Our "secure" logins are handing attackers the keys after we've already passed MFA. And somewhere, a new hire at a household-name tech company isn't who their resume says they are. They may not even be in the country.

We get into the phishing kits that make MFA irrelevant, the bots watching your inbox for the word "invoice," and one of the strangest insider threat stories we've ever heard on the show. Nic also asks the question everyone should be asking: who gets to use data like this, and how do we know it's the good guys? Stick around to the end, because there's good news too.

Episode 104: "Vibe" Coded! by The Cloud Architects

Almost Ten years and 100+ episodes in, we reunite for a conversation that has nothing to do with prompts and everything to do with the infrastructure most of us still actually run. In this episode we're joined by Claudia Perez, who's spent the last several months leading a complex Windows 11 deployment and brings a refreshingly practical take on modern endpoint management. We dig into why Windows is far from dead, why identity and data - not the device - are where every modernization journey should start, and how to think about the messy reality of hybrid-joined environments still tethered to on-prem print servers, file shares, and legacy apps. In this episode we also dig into:

* Why "identity is the new perimeter" should drive your endpoint strategy, not the other way around
* The TPM/certificate refresh looming in June, and why proactive beats reactive (again)
* The BitLocker bypass disclosure and rethinking how we protect local resources
* Copilot on the PC: block it, embrace it, or protect the data and trust your users?
* Why "the patches are coming" - AI-driven vulnerability discovery and whether ring-based deployment still holds up
* Greenfield vs. brownfield: where to actually start, and why apps are the most underestimated piece of the puzzle

A practical, occasionally irreverent conversation about maturing the basics — patching, management, identity - for the real world of normal infrastructure.

In Episode 102 of the Cloud Architects Podcast, we sit down with Mona Ghadiri to explore the rapidly evolving world of AI governance. As organizations rush to deploy AI agents, copilots, and automated workflows, Mona argues that the industry is focusing too much on shiny tools and “guardrails” while neglecting the broader governance frameworks needed to manage risk responsibly. The conversation covers everything from prompt injection and supply chain vulnerabilities to the challenges of securing AI across users, applications, models, and training data. Mona shares practical insights on why many organizations are more prepared than they think, how existing security tools can be adapted for AI, and why starting with clear workflows is critical before building AI solutions. It’s a thoughtful discussion on balancing innovation with accountability in a world where AI capabilities are accelerating faster than the processes designed to control them.

In Episode 101 of the Cloud Architects Podcast, we welcome Microsoft AI MVP James Westall for a candid “state of the nation” discussion on AI in 2026. Moving beyond the LLM hype of 2024 and the agent frenzy of 2025, the conversation explores what’s actually delivering value for organizations today and what isn’t. We unpack common pitfalls like oversold expectations, poor use case selection, and the challenge of measuring ROI, while highlighting practical success stories. We also tackle model “religion wars,” cost realities, developer productivity, and the importance of strategy and governance.